Coach Tomlin's Post-Game Comments

Tomlin on the Steelers final preseason game, a 10-0 to the Carolina Panthers.

Head Coach Mike Tomlin: That’s the end of August football. Not the type of finish we wanted but nevertheless it’s the end. Really to summarize the evening is quite simple, not enough cohesion to sustain drives to put points on the board. And when you lack that type of cohesion you better get splash plays to flip the field and ring the scoreboard up and we didn’t do that. We came up short on a couple of possessions in the first half a third-and-one, a fourth-and-one that wasn’t converted. Other instances, drives were stopped by sacks of guys behind the chains or penalties that got us behind the chains so really a combination of both. Not good enough but we’ll look at the tape and move forward. Like some of the effort from a lot of people out there. Guys really working and just big picture appreciate the efforts of all these young men throughout this process. The process is what it is and we’ll start the process of moving forward in determining who the 53 (players) are and getting ready for the opener. On the injury front, we had two injuries I think that are worth noting in the football game. Martavis Bryant has an AC sprain in the shoulder, don’t know the significance of that. We’ll evaluate him in the morning. Brice McCain sustained a right groin injury of some kind. We’ll evaluate both of those guys as quickly as possible and get some direction in terms of the length of time and so forth with them.

Can you assess the play of Landry Jones?I thought he did some good things. Obviously not enough. We didn’t score. The evaluation of his play doesn’t happen in a vacuum. He’s one of 11 (players). We’ll look at the tape for more detailed analysis.

Do you feel good as a team where you are health wise?I do particularly form a health standpoint. It’s not something that we have control over so I don’t spend a lot of time fretting over that. But it is a blessing when they’re minimal and not a lot of significant ones so we’ll take that.

Do you feel good about the overall status of your team?I do and we have 10 or so days before the opener and we will intend to utilize that. We’re very much still a team in development like all teams are. I think you’re kidding yourself if you think you’re a finished product this time of year. We’re going to continue to put the hay in the barn. We’re going to continue to work on a day-to-day basis. We realize there’s going to be some finality in preparation to our opener, fast approaching but we’re still going to clock in on a day-to-day basis with that mentality.

Can you cite any player who played well?Not anybody specifically. Just little minor things obviously particularly in the kicking game some things that I was looking for. We’ll detail that and evaluate it in the morning.

Are you confident that the third-string quarterback is on the roster?I’m not confident of anything right now in that regard. I’ll look at the tape and we’ll make appropriate decisions based on performance.

Did you like the way Daniel McCullers ran down the running back?I did (see it) but there’s a lot of plays in a football game and that’s his job.

What is your assessment of Brad Wing?I don’t get into it often times in terms of some of the things we’re asking him to do. The last two weeks we have asked him to directional kick a little bit and presented a new challenge to him. He’s had some positive moments, negative moments but I like his mentality through it all. Telling he had more positive ones tonight than negative. He rebounded nicely relative to that since the last time out and that’s what you expect from a young guy. You’re going to present him with challenges. Maybe he’s going to fail, he’s got to have the right mindset in terms of responding to it and ultimately perform better and I think he did.

Is there one side of the ball that concerns you?No I’m concerned about all three phases of our football team as we push forward toward the opener.

Would you consider using them on the short-term injured reserve option?All of our options are on the table regarding those guys and others. We’re going to do what’s best for our football team and work to get the best, strongest 53 (players) available to us with an eye toward the opener. Really it’s just that simple.

What’s the next process with the team?We’ll go through our process. We’re not going to put ourselves under the gun in terms of a time table. We’ll do business how we do it. We’ll have good clean discussions when we come to some finality. We’ll proceed from there.